Chapter Forty: Eris Vs the Theocracy’s Monster

The beast takes a step forward and roars, "RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

The roar is loud enough to hurt Eris' ears as the soundwaves reach her, "Ow! Damn it! What the hell is this thing?! It looks like some kind of mix between a demon, a chimera, a dragon, and an undead." Eris grits her teeth and thinks, "Crap! There wasn't anything like this in the game. I don't know anything about this creature or what it's capable of. I'll have to keep my distance until I'm sure of the range of its attacks."

Multiple balls of crimson flames appear over Eris' hand and are then launched at the monsters. The beast doesn't move an inch as the fireballs make contact and explode with a power similar to a missile. However, after the smoke clears, there's not a scratch nor blemish on the beast's body, shocking the vampire. It then flies into the air, and accelerates towards Eris with great speed. Eris flies, getting distance from her and the monster, and launches a bolt of red lightning at the monsters. The lightning manages to force the beast back, but it's' largely unaffected by the attack, as it leaves little more than a slight burn on its skin.

"Okay. So it's immune to fire and lightning barely affects it. That could just be because of its dragon-like traits. If I'm going under the assumption that it is a mix of many different creatures, then its demonic qualities should make it resistant to my void magic. I do have a lot of other types of magic and the ability to attack with my blood. I can only hope that those work," Eris plans.

The vampire cuts into her hand with Nightmare, forms three spears out of her seemingly endless supply of blood, and launches them at the monster. Two of the blood spears pierce the beast's skin, but the other bounces off the scales on its head.

"Nice. So its face is tougher than the rest of its body. Good to know."

"RRRRAAAAAHHHH!!!!" the beast roars in anger.

The monster then charged at Eris with its claws and fangs bared. Eris manages to block with Nightmare just as the creature attacks with its claws. However, the force of the creature's hit is strong enough to send Eris flying back hundreds of feet.

The vampire recovers, and then takes the initiative to attack directly this time. Her blade become covered in red and black flames, and she attacks the monster with speed several times that of a bullet. The beast is caught off guard by Eris' speed, and revives a diagonal slash on its torso.

The creature's blue blood splashed a bit on Eris's face, but she doesn't waver, and goes in for another slash. This time, the creature blocks with its head, while at the same time, head-butting the vampire to push her back.

The vampire notices a dark, purple light coming from its mouth and quickly moves out of its way. Just as she suspects, the beast breathes a purple beam of energy at Eris. The vampire dodges the beam, and it impacts the ground, creating a massive explosion that's much more powerful than the ones created by Eris' fireballs.

The vampire feels lucky to have avoided that attack, but that feeling quickly fades as the beast suddenly appears right in front of her. The monster then sends two of its fists straight into Eris' body, sending her flying into the wall created by her subordinates. Eris' impact creates spider-web-like cracks and a large indentation in the light grey walls. The vampire then slides off the wall and to the ground below before coughing up a pile of blood. Eris falls into a rage, clenching her fists as she bares her fangs at the monster. Her senses become even sharper than they were before, and unbeknownst to the vampire, her pupils narrow, becoming similar to a cat's, like before.

There's a voice in her head compelling her, "This bastard dared to injure us!! Kill him!! Rip him to shreds!! Tear him limb from limb!! Bathe in his blood!! Make that disgusting beast regret ever meeting us!!"

This time, Eris is unable to fight the words of the feminen voice, and her body seems to act on its own. The vampire accelerates towards the beast with her fangs bared, catching it off guard. Eris uses her clawed gauntlet to cut into the beast's scaled chest, making it bleed dark blue blood. The snake tail of the monster acts on its own to attack Eris. She responds by summoning Nightmare and cutting the head off of the snake. Now in a rage, the monster slaps Eris, sending her flying into the ground. It then breathes its purple beam right at the vampire, hitting it directly and creating a large explosion.

"RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" the beast roars, seemingly for victory.

However, it's victory is short lived as Eris suddenly appears behind him with blood dripping from her forehead and the corner of her mouth. Faster than the monster can react, Eris plunges her claws into its back, and manages to grab the black sphere that is its core. The vampire applies a massive amount of pressure, shattering the monster's core, and then backs away. Without its core, the monster ceases all movement. It dematerializes, going back to is black goo-like state, and then disintegrates. The battlefield finally quiets down. The air becomes still, and the black clouds begin to part, revealing rays of sunshine.

Eris suddenly hears a voice behind her, "Empress, are you alright?!"

She turns to see Chrono floating behind her and glares at him, "You're late."

Chrono feels that something is different. Eris has a far more intimidating atmosphere about her than she did before. It feels as if the grim reaper's scythe is pressed right against his neck. And if he doesn't do something, it will reap his soul.

He quickly bows, "Please forgive me, Empress. I did not know the enemy would be this strong,"

Eris flies over to the demon, grabs him by the collar of his shirt, and sinks her fangs into her neck. The vampire quickly gets to work draining Chrono of his blood to recover her wounds. The demon clenches his fists and grits his teeth to fight through the pain of Eris' bite. All the while, he can feel his life, energy, and magic power being drained away by the hungry vampire.

"E… Empress… please…"

Chrono's pleading manages to snap Eris out of her beast-like state. Her pupils return to their round shape, and she quickly releases Chrono from her jaws. She then grasps her head in pain as she's assaulted by another headache.

"Empress, are you alright?!" the demon asks worryingly.

"I should be asking you that question. I'm sorry for taking so much of your blood. I don't know what came over me," she answers.

"Don't be. All of your subordinates would happily offer their blood to you. Not to mention, I made a mistake. That was my punishment for not aiding you in your battle against that creature."

"It's not your fault. We underestimated the enemy. None of us ever predicted that they'd have such a powerful monster on their side. I'm to blame for this too. How are Serena and Rose?"

"They are concerned for you, but they are both safe."

Eris breathes a sigh of relief, "Well that's good. Still, I can't help but wonder, if their god is so nice and clean, then why does the artifact that he left for his followers summon such a disgusting monster?"